Chapter 1: The Smugglers' Den
Roscoe Vanderbilt, the friendly proprietor of the Smiling Eel Tavern, had four new guests: Thea, a dwarven gladiatrix with rage issues; Alvyn, a gnomish wizard with a love of alchemy and transmutation; Berrain, a forgetful elven urchin skilled with a longbow; and Haroof, a tiefling bard with a crippling lust for women. Lacking any means of paying for their rooms at the Eel, the adventurers were looking for work, so Roscoe hired them to clear out the giant rats lurking in his basement. After killing the rats, the adventurers noticed a tunnel wide enough for them to crawl through and decided to investigate; inside the tunnel, they found a cache of stolen treasure that the rats had apparently been hoarding. They recovered a portrait of a woman and left the rest of the tunnel to explore at a later date. Celebrating their victory over mugs of ale with Roscoe, the group discussed the latest rumors. Apparently, no news had been heard from the elven city of the Glades in some time, and traders had reported being turned away at the gates. As they chatted, two customers at another table started arguing. The argument got heated, and as they came to blows, a small pouch flew out of the pocket of one of the men, landing in front of Alvyn. Alvyn quickly pocketed the pouch, and when the two men came looking for trouble, the adventurers subdued one of them while the other fled. Inside the pouch was a mysterious black sand. Roscoe called in his old friend Drake Shieldheart, Captain of the Guard, who told the group that he had recovered other samples of the black sand over the last few weeks and that it was somehow being smuggled into the city under his nose. He believed that someone within the Freeport Guard was aiding the smugglers, so he was seeking outside assistance in the investigation. Roscoe vouched for the group, and Drake hired them on the spot. The first order of business was interrogating their prisoner, so the group set about this task with gusto, eventually learning that he had been hired to protect a covered wagon while it traveled from the nearby farming village of Sunnyvale to a spot on the cliffs just outside Freeport. Before leaving town, the group stopped by Greenbottle's Pawn Shop to try and pawn the portrait. It turned out to be Garrett Greenbottle's only remaining picture of his dead wife, and her tearfully thanked his new friends for returning it. While investigating the area around the cliffs, the group found a well-hidden path down into a cave. Within a hidden chamber inside the cave, they found the covered wagon, and they decided to continue moving through the cave and look for more clues. After setting off an alarm and destroying a bridge, the adventurers found themselves in a lower section of the cave that appeared unused by the smugglers. They found the remains of an old sahuagin scout post, then made their way back to the upper levels, where they found the leader of the smugglers sitting at a desk with some scattered papers. The smuggler attempted to flee up a ladder, but the group followed and wound up in a warehouse inside Freeport. While Haroof snatched up as many of the papers as he could, the rest of the group dispatched the smuggler and discovered an odd tattoo on her shoulder. After calling in Drake to secure the area and finish clearing out the rest of the smugglers, they examined the papers and found another clue: a letter discussing a ship and a meeting at sea with some mysterious "friends." The adventurers returned to the Eel for celebratory drinks.